Leak of documents will make diplomats` job tough: US

Washington: The unauthorised release of secret documents of the US by the WikiLeaks giving an insight into American diplomacy would make the jobs of its diplomats more difficult at least in the near term, the State Department said on Thursday.

"We understand that for a period of time, this is going to make our day-to-day conduct of diplomacy much more difficult," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters at his daily news conference.

"We anticipate that for a period of time, some government officials that have talked to us freely in the past may be more reluctant. We do understand that there may be officials who were willing to share information that may be more reticent. We will work through this," Crowley said in response to a question.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Bill Burns briefed the Congress on this issue a day earlier, he said.

"He made clear that this is going to make the conduct of diplomacy for a period of time more difficult, I mean, for human nature reasons if none other," Crowley said.

"We are not happy at these - the release of these documents, and I have no doubt that countries and leaders looking at the documents out of context are not happy as well. We will continue our diplomatic outreach. We are having many conversations," he said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is having them at her level.

"We are having them from the level of the Deputy Secretary down to the ambassador and other counsellors at embassies around the world. Countries, depending on what they have seen and what they have read, are reacting," Crowley said.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice said the US is among the most aggressive champions of openness and transparency in government.

"President Obama spoke to that very issue during his speech to the General Assembly this year, and we have taken, as an administration, many unprecedented steps to increase the amount of openness and transparency in government, and we`re quite proud of that," she said.

Rice said Hillary and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently had a very good and constructive meeting on a range of topics.

"The Secretary General expressed to me satisfaction with his discussion with Secretary Clinton on all issues including on this question of WikiLeaks, and the Secretary General I believe knows quite well that the United States and our representatives here do the work of diplomats, and nothing else, and we are grateful for the opportunity that they had to have that exchange," she said.